The challenge

ICHF Events wanted to profile visitors to their Craft Hobby & Stitch International Trade Show at the NEC Birmingham, to understand the overall UK craft industry profile.

To help with this, DJS Research was commissioned to undertake a quantitative face-to-face survey with visitors from the show.

The approach

Effective consumer market research explores people’s preferences, motivations, behaviours, attitudes and needs. How these insights are analysed and presented is as important as the areas of study; outputs must be both accessible and actionable if they are to inform data-led decision-making. At DJS Research we help our clients gain a deeper understanding of their target market – exploring not only what they do but why they do it, even when they're not consciously aware of it themselves.

From examining what consumers are watching, buying and using, to how they feel about their products and services, we draw on our toolkit of services and solutions to create bespoke solutions that deliver meaningful audience insight. 

Our experience in consumer research is extremely wide-ranging, crossing many sectors including food and drink, FMCG, retail, utilities and the public sector. We also regularly conduct research on behalf of consumer regulators and watchdogs, exploring consumer rights and protection.

Our B2C experience and capabilities include: 

• New product development.
• Segmentation and profiling.
• Brand strategy.
• Customer satisfaction.
• Advertising research.
• UX research.
• Proposition testing.

Crafting bespoke B2C solutions at DJS Research

We don't do 'off-the-shelf' proposals. All our projects are tailored to meet the sector-specific needs of our clients. As a full-service agency, we have the full range of traditional and innovative qualitative and quantitative research services at our disposal and our specialist teams and departments assist our researchers to optimise and elevate our outputs. 

We bring together teams of experts to meet your objectives, which might include:

• Our Behavioural Science experts to understand how your consumers really think and behave – and why!
• Statisticians to even dig deeper into the data and interpret what the findings mean for your organisation and the road ahead.
• Semioticians to help us decipher how your consumers interpret meaning from the signs and symbols of everyday life.
• Our Creative Services team who can transform our findings into a range of different dynamic formats, from punchy infographics to engaging short-form videos, to ensure outputs are fully accessible and memorable for all key stakeholders.

Engaging your audience – no matter who, or where, they are...

With over two decades of experience honing our audience engagement skills, we have both the expertise and the capabilities to reach consumers from all walks of life. Our in-house online consumer panel, Opinion Exchange, provides direct access to thousands of UK consumers who are ready and willing to take part in market research studies. This panel is just one of the many tools we have available to recruit audiences from across the country.

Our range of specialist sub-panels includes: 

• Different Perspectives: our panel of over 10,000 people who are facing vulnerable circumstances today. Through this highly engaged panel of individuals, each with varied vulnerabilities, we can provide our clients with a direct route to connect with audiences who are often considered hard to reach. 
• ChatterZone: Our panel of over 5,000 children and young people, with parental consent in place to participate in market research. 

In addition to our panels, our in-house Field & Recruitment team oversees a network of UK-wide recruiters as well as a large team of face-to-face interviewers for conducting surveys with the public. We can also carry out research with existing customers using client-supplied contact lists.

To find out more about our expertise in consumer market research, and discuss how we could craft a bespoke sector-led solution to deliver the insights your organisation needs, contact our team today. 

The results

DJS Research spoke to a wide variety of visitors, most were independent retailers with one store, whilst a small minority were manufacturers and internet businesses. Some were new businesses and others were more established.

Half had more than 100 customers visiting their store(s) per week while others were smaller, with 100 or fewer visiting each week. Card making, papercraft, scrapbooking, needlecraft, haberdashery products and art materials are key creative products within the market place. Less than half trade over the internet, with manufacturers being most likely to do so, and independent retailers least likely.

DJS Research provided ICHF Events with a comprehensive overview of visitors to the show, to enable them to target the appropriate audience for future shows and maximise sales potential.